Sarah Boone sentencing: Florida woman convicted of murdering boyfriend in suitcase

Sarah Boone, the Florida woman convicted of killing her boyfriend by locking him in a suitcase, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

Boone, who rejected a 15-year plea deal before her trial, now faces life in prison after a six-member jury convicted her on Oct. 25, 2024, of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres. She is scheduled to be sentenced Monday at 1:30 p.m. in Orange County Court.

Her trial attorney, James Owens, filed a motion earlier this month requesting a new trial, citing various complaints. Judge Michael Kraynick did not rule on this request. Owens also said Boone would likely appeal her conviction and that he would not represent her.

Below is a summary of the trail – and some of the key moments during the investigation.

Sarah Boone trial

Prosecutors said during the trial that a drunken game of hide-and-seek in February 2020 between Boone, 47, and Torres, 45, ended as a game when Boone unzipped the man’s suitcase — and then refused to let him out. despite his pleas that he was unable to breathe.

Videos recorded by Boone and found on her cell phone showed Boone taunting Torres and accusing him of choking and abusing her. Then she went to bed and left him in the suitcase, where she found him dead the next day. Torres suffocated in that suitcase, officials said.

Content Warning: The video below is disturbing and graphic and may be difficult to watch. Viewer discretion is advised.

The state argued that Boone wanted to punish Torres for a codependent, dysfunctional relationship and that she demonstrated malicious intent. However, the defense argued that Boone loved Torres despite suffering from battered spouse syndrome after years of alleged abuse.

After the ten-day trial, the jury took less than 90 minutes to reach a verdict. According to her lawyer, Sarah Boone was “shocked” by the verdict.

In the four years leading up to the trial, Boone had retained eight court-appointed attorneys, all of whom withdrew either due to difficulties with Boone or conflicts of interest. At one point, Boone was forced to represent herself after Judge Michael Kraynick, who presided over the trial, ruled that Boone’s actions had waived her right to additional court-appointed attorneys.

Boone represented herself at at least one hearing and admitted she didn’t know what she was doing. She filed a few motions and even underwrote her own “Inmate Seeks Attorney” ad, making Owens her pro bono attorney.

The emergency call: Deadly game of hide-and-seek

On February 24, 2020 at 1:01 p.m., Sarah Boone called 911 to report that her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., was dead in her apartment in Winter Park, Florida. She told 911 dispatchers that she and Torres had played a game of hide-and-seek the night before and that during the game they both “jokingly thought it would be funny if Jorge got in the suitcase,” the arrest report states.

Boone said she and Torres were drinking wine. At some point, she went upstairs and “passed out” in her bed, the report said. According to the report, she woke up hours later when her cell phone rang, went downstairs and found Torres unresponsive and not breathing.

Minutes after that 911 call, the Orange County Fire Department arrived and confirmed Torres was dead.

The cell phone videos: “Sarah, I can’t breathe, baby”

During the investigation, investigators found two videos on Sarah’s iPhone. The videos appear to show Torres zipping up the suitcase, moving occasionally and seemingly begging Sarah to let him out. In the video, it appears Boone is repeatedly taunting him.

“Sarah, I can’t breathe, baby,” Torres said, according to the video.

“That’s up to you,” she replies.

“Sarah, I can’t breathe,” he said again.

“That’s up to you,” Boone replies, even laughing.

According to investigators, these videos were recorded shortly after 11 p.m., and hours before that, Boone eventually called 911. According to the report, the second video shows the suitcase in a different position – upside down and now on the left side of the trailer room.

According to the arrest report, the autopsy revealed that Torres had scratches on his back, a large scratch on his neck, contusions on his left shoulder and contusions on his forehead due to “blunt force trauma.” He also had a cut on his lip, the report said.

The interrogation: “It wasn’t intentional”

On February 25, 2022, Sarah Boone drove to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office where she spoke with detectives for nearly two hours. During questioning, Boone said Torres was injured by falling off her son’s bike or by falling or running into walls.

When detectives asked her to watch the videos found on her phone, Boone watched for a moment and then said she didn’t want to watch them. She told investigators that she believed Torres could get out of the suitcase and claimed that the zipper could be unzipped from the inside.

However, investigators questioned this because they did not see Torres’ fingers sticking out of the suitcase anywhere in the videos.

“There are no holes visible in the video. There is no hole to be seen anywhere at the zipper location. If there is a hole, he presses on it and begs you to come out. “We should probably see this hole,” a detective said during interrogation.

“Basically he could have escaped,” another detective replies.

“I didn’t zip it all the way up. I didn’t zip it all the way up. This is terrible, okay? Terrible. Terrible. “I don’t think I’ll ever be right about that,” Boone said of the interrogation video.

“It wasn’t intentional. I will put my hand on the Bible. It wasn’t intentional. “I wouldn’t do that to him or anyone else,” she later said.

“But you did,” a detective replies.

“Not intentional,” Boone replies, adding that she thought Torres would get out.

The disputes with lawyers: “Inmate is looking for a lawyer”

Sarah Boone contacted several court-appointed attorneys before her trial, many of whom asked to be withdrawn due to irreconcilable differences with Boone over her defense. Some left due to conflicts of interest.

Boone also claimed that her various attorneys were not cooperating with her, were unavailable, did not have certain documents or evidence, and were outright lying to her. At one of her preliminary hearings, Boone submitted a 58-page handwritten letter to the judge containing a list of questions, complaints and criticisms about how her case was allegedly handled in the court system.

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